An email-based automated recovery action may provide a mechanism for authorizing operations in a hosted environment. In conventional systems, engineers and operators are typically allowed to perform only certain read-only operations in the hosted environment in order to minimize service disruptions. When a service incident occurs, however, engineers are not allowed to perform certain automated recovery actions in the environment by an automation framework. Thus, in some situations, the limits enforced by the automation framework may result in greater service disruption due to an engineer's or operator's inability to repair an active problem.